United Launch Alliance, the rocket company with its headquarters in Centennial, now has commitments from three commercial space firms to use its powerful Atlas V.
The Boeing Co. announced Thursday that it picked Atlas V to launch the Crew Space Transportation-100 spacecraft that is under development.
“The Atlas V is a cost-effective, reliable vehicle, and ULA stands ready to support Boeing’s commercial human spaceflight program,” said George Sowers, vice president of business development at ULA — a joint venture of Boeing and Lockheed Martin.
Atlas V also is the rocket chosen by two of the three other companies that have received NASA commercial-spacecraft development money. Sierra Nevada Space Systems of Louisville has selected Atlas V to launch its Dream Chaser space plane, as has Blue Origin of Washington state for its New Shepard spacecraft.
“This selection marks a major step forward in Boeing’s efforts to provide NASA with a proven launch capability as part of our complete commercial crew transportation service,” said John Elbon, Boeing’s vice president and program manager of commercial crew programs.
Boeing’s CST-100 is a reusable capsule- shaped spacecraft. If NASA selects the CST-100 for a development contract with sufficient funding, Boeing and ULA officials said Atlas V can offer an unmanned test flight and crewed test flight in 2015.
On July 18, ULA and NASA announced an agreement to share information to determine whether Atlas V can safely carry astronauts on commercial spacecraft to low-Earth orbit destinations.
Ann Schrader: 303-954-1967 or aschrader@denverpost.com
